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Federalism and ObamaCare

Liberals discover state’s rights in a Hail Mary to save the health law.

March 4, 2015 7:03 p.m. ET

A closely divided Supreme Court heard arguments in the challenge to ObamaCare’s illegal subsidies on Wednesday, and the session spun off in an unexpected and provocative direction: To wit, several Justices suggested that the Affordable Care Act as drafted would unconstitutionally coerce the states.

King v. Burwell turns on the statute’s plain text limiting health subsidies to those insurance exchanges established by the states, rather than the 36 run by the federal government as fallbacks. This condition for federal...